$35 million listing in Serra Retreat reportedly sold
Idyllic Malibu estate neighborhoods gain notoriety as a Serra Retreat home listed for sale at $35 million is reportedly sold for an undisclosed amount.
By Rick Wallace / Special The Malibu Times
Absolutely the most coveted real estate in Los Angeles County is a home on the beach. Malibu is practically the only place to find such a treasure with privately owned sand, and last year’s average sales price of nearly $8 million for 58 beach sales validates the claim.
Next in desirability is perhaps an estate with a view. Particularly an ocean view. Again Malibu, along with Pacific Palisades and Rancho Palos Verdes, offers the best choices.
After that, a basic walled estate is the ideal fare. Beverly Hills, Bel-Air and Hancock Park are most renown for privacy that walls afford. So is Malibu.
The neighborhoods of Serra Retreat, Ramirez Canyon and Bonsall have averaged more than $5 million per sale since the beginning of 2005. Excluding a prominent estate on Sweetwater Mesa, one of California’s most expensive properties was just reported sold with an asking price of $35 million.
Easily competing with Beverly Hills, Malibu’s three premier estate neighborhoods boast dozens of stunning properties that bring prestige and class to Malibu, competing not just with the rest of the county, but also with the top zip codes across the country.
At this writing, eight listings in the three locations have an average asking price of about $6 million.
Ocean views, except for Sweetwater Mesa atop Serra Retreat overlooking the Malibu Pier and Santa Monica Bay, are rare in all three neighborhoods. No beachfront? No ocean view? No problem. The idyllic trees and fauna, on or near creeks, of meandering streets with immaculate, stately homes and landscaping draw big money.
Serra Retreat, while mostly on flat land parcels, includes the knoll-top street Sweetwater Mesa, where the $35 million listing (the sale price was undisclosed) features 16 acres, a small golf course, a 10-car garage and huge gatehouse, and the 15,000-square-foot main residence. Another of Malibu’s highest sales already in 2005 was also in Serra Retreat. The listing price was $12 million; the sale price was also undisclosed. The property has three acres with a home of Old World craftsmanship and soaring ceilings. Another property, without ocean view, sold in the $20 million range last year.
Bonsall, which goes by the official name of Zuma Canyon, has four listings of about $12 million, $6.5 million, $4.5 million and $3 million. The $12 million listing features seven bedrooms, two guest facilities, seven fireplaces, a huge recreation room, gym and media room. Just up the street, $6.5 million will get you seven mostly usable, manicured acres with only a peak of ocean view, koi ponds, pool, guesthouse, and equestrian facilities and pastures. Another property on Bonsall, recently reported in escrow, has nine acres with an asking price of a little more than $6 million.
Ramirez Canyon has two current listings in the $4 million-$5 million range, following a recent sale of a $3.5 million five-acre estate (the same property sold in 2001 for just less than $2 million).
By comparison, the zip codes of Beverly Hills have claimed an average sale price since the beginning of this year of about $3.35 million, according to 92 sales reported in the Multiple Listing Service.
All three locales were significant to Malibu’s early history. A century ago, the Rindge family had a large residence in Serra Retreat and a ranch house on Bonsall. Ramirez Canyon was used for cattle herding all the way down to Paradise Cove where the trailer park and restaurant are now.
While both Serra Retreat and Bonsall have public trail accesses at the back of each canyon, Ramirez is anchored by a large 19-acre estate owned by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which was given the property by Barbra Streisand. The singer/actress bought up the last five homes in the canyon in the 1980s and created the gated compound before it was donated.
Being in the lowlands, each area has a creek that runs through it, each with Arizona crossings whereby cars actually drive through the rushing creek water (the long Serra Retreat crossing over Malibu Creek was replaced with a bridge four years ago). The three neighborhoods are unique in Malibu real estate, the only places that are low-lying in creek-fed mountain openings (though Sycamore Park is similar and Malibu West fulfills the role in housing tract form). Quick access off Pacific Coast Highway and proximity to the beach add to the values.
Serra Retreat, with an increasing celebrity reputation, now has a guarded gate entrance, one of only three Malibu neighborhoods that are manned by guards. The other two are the Malibu Colony and Malibu Cove Colony. By contrast, four condominium facilities and both mobile home parks have guards at their entrances.
Rick Wallace of the Coldwell Banker Company has been a Realtor in Malibu for 18 years. He can be reached at his web site, www.RICKMALIBUrealestate.com.